Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Budget Battle in New Jersey; Fourth of July Safety

Aired July 03, 2006 - 08:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening this morning, Mexicans will have to wait a little longer for their new president. The top two candidates have already declared victory, but Sunday's election is still too close to call. Final results are expected by Wednesday.
President Bush set to sign the Foster Child Act a little later today. The new law is meant to speed up the process of finding good, permanent homes for foster children.

The emergency surgery for movie critic Roger Ebert. Doctors needed to repair a ruptured blood vessel due to complications from an earlier cancer surgery. Ebert's co-host Richard Roper says Ebert's vital signs were good after the operation.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.

COSTELLO: And I'm Carol Costello, in for Soledad.

O'BRIEN: There's a showdown and a shutdown in New Jersey this morning. The Democratic governor battling lawmakers in his own party over a budget which must, according to the New Jersey constitution, be passed by July 1st. Look at the clock. The day came and went; no budget. And now, non-essential state services are closed down. The man who pulled the plug is the governor.

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine joining us now from the state capital in Trenton, New Jersey.

Governor Corzine, good to have you with us.

GOVERNOR JON CORZINE (D), NEW JERSEY: Good morning, Miles.

O'BRIEN: We all KNOW New Jersey politics is a contact sport, but why this, why this now?

CORZINE: Well, there are really two problems. One is the short- run problem, which you spoke about, which is our constitution doesn't allow us to spend money. It's not like in Washington, where you can just have a continuing resolution or ignore deadlines. Here, we have a very firm -- can't spend money if you don't have a budget.

No budget's been presented and therefore, all we have the capacity to do is declare an emergency and then keep people who are involved in protecting the public's health and safety -- prisons, state police, hospitals, veterans activities -- in place. But we can't keep things like casinos, racetracks, issuing of licenses, and actually paying bills to contractors who work on highways. So that stuff has to stop.

O'BRIEN: Well, you can see why people would be upset. You want to raise the sales tax by a penny. And that gets people's dander up.

CORZINE: Miles, we have a long-run problem in New Jersey, as well. We're one of a handful of states that is still operating in a serious deficit. I just over the state about four months ago. And the fact is, we had a $4.5 million budget deficit if we did nothing. We cut spending dramatically, about $2.5 billion. And then we had to fill the hole that remained with sales taxes.

Now, we can do what has gone on in the past and just sort of push that problem down the road, ignore the fact that it exists, or you can match the income coming in with the expenditures going out, which is what our constitution also asks us to do. New Jersey has been remiss in not taking on its financial responsibilities in a way that doesn't deteriorate our standing among all of those who have to see that we have to put the expenditures and revenues together.

We've seen our credit rating go from AAA to the bottom of the pack. We have seen our taxes go up because we haven't been able to deal with our expenditures and revenues matching.

O'BRIEN: So -- we'll talk in a moment about how the solution to taxes going up is to raise taxes. But let me just interject here. The kind of opposition you're getting from members of your own party -- this is from New Jersey assembly speaker, Joseph Roberts.

He says this: "We've reached the crisis point, and all because the governor is more interested in posing a shutdown instead of reaching an agreement that would make a sales tax increase unnecessary. We consider this shutdown to be both unconscionable and indefensible."

What do you say to that?

CORZINE: Well, first of all, the speaker is not following the constitution of the state of New Jersey, which says that if you don't have a budget, you can't spend money. And, therefore, the activities of government actually have to shut down. It's the law. The speaker is encouraging me to break the law.

By the way, the state senate looks as if it would accept the budget that I am proposing, or with some modifications. And frankly, a number of people in the assembly, which the speaker leads, would be willing to join. And if the speaker is not willing to work towards a compromise, which we have already laid on the table ten days ago, it is a problem of political leadership that we have to address our long- term problem, but we have this constitutional issue in the short run that cannot be ignored. And people who say we can just keep running government because we choose to are not following the law.

O'BRIEN: Now, in the middle of this are 45,000 pawns, 45,000 state workers.

CORZINE: Well, not pawns. O'BRIEN: Well, let's listen to what one of them has to say to you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Governor, Mr. Corzine, if you do close the park, you got another job for me so I can support my family and not go on, you know, assistance or welfare or something like that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: You got an answer for him?

CORZINE: Of course, I'm as concerned about not having our 45,000 state employees working as anyone else is. No one likes the kind of situation we're in, the crisis we are in. But we need to make sure that we follow the law, Miles. You can't just turn your back on it.

Now, that individual and all of the state workers will be getting makeup pay for what they're not receiving. And hopefully, we can get to a conclusion of this budget crisis in a day or two. As a matter of fact, I would welcome the assembly actually coming in, staying in Trenton, working on the budget hour after hour, 24 hours a day, until we come up with a budget.

I can't veto a budget. I can't sign a budget until it's actually presented by the legislature. It hasn't been. And so I would say to the gentleman that you just mentioned, call up his legislator and ask them to pass a budget.

O'BRIEN: Governor, you can't find a bill dollars in cuts anywhere in the state right now to solve this problem?

CORZINE: Miles, we have already cut $2.5 billion. We've cut higher education, we've cut spending on education, we've cut all kinds of things already. And it is just an issue of whether we're going to go deeper into not being able to provide basic services that the public really wants to see, including, by the way, protecting them. Homeland security. Make sure we have state police.

So I -- you know, I don't think it's an issue of whether we're prepared to cut spending because we have already done that to a very large degree, the highest degree that has occurred any time in recent history in Trenton.

O'BRIEN: New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, thanks for being with us.

CORZINE: Thank you.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: He came of age on the beaches of Normandy. The World War II vet served as a medic and musician. You probably don't know the name, Bill Arter, but chances are you know his song.

This story now from reporter Scott Thompson of our affiliate KOTV in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (SINGING): And the company jumps when he plays "Reveille." He's the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B.

SCOTT THOMPSON, KOTV REPORTER (voice-over): It was part of the soundtrack of a generation. Troops landed on the beaches of Normandy with the music of a certain bugle boy ringing in their ears.

Oklahoman Bill Arter was on those beaches, too. The original "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B."

BILL ARTER, "BOOGIE WOOGIE BUGLE BOY": As I played songs and played all my calls, I would go over to Company C, which was an all black outfit, and we had our jam sessions. And that's when they nicknamed me the "Bugle Boy from Company B," because I fit that -- I fit that like a glove, you know.

THOMPSON: Bill was discovered by the Andrews Sisters while he was in basic training. He took his music with him when he was deployed with a third wave of troops on D-Day. As a World War II medic, he cared for wounded soldiers but says he spread even more healing through his music.

ARTER: It's something you can't tell people about, because they wouldn't understand. But it seemed like whatever I played, I played to entertain them, just to keep their mind off what they were going to go through next. We didn't know what was up there in front of us.

THOMPSON: That was more than 60 years ago. Since then, Bill's kept up with his trumpet, even recording a special collection for his wife for their 40th anniversary.

Edging up on 50 years now together, Bill is relearning to play the trumpet. A stroke stole the dexterity of his right hand. Now he's learning to play again with his left hand.

ARTER: The lord knows, but I think I've blessed a lot of people.

THOMPSON: His legacy moves on through dozens of children, grand children, and great grandchildren. One grandson is even a veteran of the war in Iraq.

Still, Bill Arter will probably be best remembered as...

THE ANDREWS SISTERS, SINGERS (SINGING): The boogie woogie bugle boy of Company B.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Great story.

COSTELLO: That's awesome, isn't it?

O'BRIEN: Great story. Glad he's still with us and glad he's still playing. He's even trying with his left hand. Good for him.

Coming up, if backyard fireworks are part of your Fourth of July plans, we invite you to be careful. Don't get hurt over a few bangs and booms.

COSTELLO: And ahoy, matey! Johnny Depp is back to take over the box office in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." Find out if you should fork over your hard-earned deblues (ph) to see it. That's just ahead in "A.M. Pop." Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Baseball, barbecues and a burst of fireworks. Nothing says Fourth of July quite like a rocket's red glare. But there is a dark side to the fire and light. In 2005, nearly 11,000 people suffered fireworks injuries, and four of them died.

Julie Vallese with the Consumer Products Safety Commission is in Darnestown, Maryland, to show and tell us how to stay safe when firing up the fun.

You know, it always surprises me to see those numbers, because everybody knows fireworks are dangerous.

JULIE VALLESE, U.S. CPSC: Well, you know, fireworks are a lot of fun, Carol, but they are dangerous. A lot of times the injuries are serious burns that send people to hospitals. And about 6,500 of those injuries actually happen around the four weeks that surround July Fourth. Most often it is kids that end up getting those burns and get sent to the hospital.

COSTELLO: OK, on the subject on kids, most of the little kids we see play with those sparklers, which seem pretty innocuous, actually. But you have a demonstration to show us maybe not?

VALLESE: Well, actually, I have a sparkler here for you, Carol, and they do seem pretty innocent. And a lot of parents want their kids to participate in the Fourth of July and they actually hand them these. And you know, they wave them around. But they can catch on clothes, they can burn skin. These actually burn at about 2,000 degrees, which is enough to melt metal. And so while kids want to be involved, they should actually simply observe.

COSTELLO: So how old should the kid be before they run around with a sparkler?

VALLESE: Well, you know, the Consumer Product Safety Commission doesn't put an age on it. I think parents need to really assess their children. Definitely children under ten shouldn't be holding them. But parents need to know exactly what their kids can and can't do. Give a kid something sparkly and bright, and tell them not to touch it. You know that's a sure invitation that a kid's going to do just that.

COSTELLO: True. OK, you have another demonstration for us of an illegal firework, an M-1000. And I would assume that teenagers are most likely to get ahold of these.

VALLESE: You know, the illegal fireworks -- cherry bombs, M- 1000s and quartersticks -- they are illegal. They are sold in brown paper wrapping with no markings. And what we have for you is an M- 1000 in a watermelon. And you're going to see just how powerful that explosion will be.

COSTELLO: Wow! How did you -- did you have like a -- how did you blow that up? Did you just ignite it from afar?

VALLESE: You know, we're a little high tech here. We had some remote controls doing that. We don't want our employees in any danger, so we set it up to do it just remotely.

COSTELLO: Wow, OK, so that is illustration enough. We'll stay away from those puppies. Now you're going to show us a professional firework, which I assume many people get ahold of these things?

VALLESE: You know, it's really when people want to outdo their neighbor. They think that they have to have the best and biggest backyard fireworks display. And this is what it actually looks like. It has a little bit longer fuse on it. It's called a quick match, or a quick light fuse. And these actually burn at about 100 feet per second. So the problem with these: power and speed. It's very deceiving to consumers. They light it, and they actually don't even have enough time to get away.

And we have set that up for you. Two -- about 20 people over the last five years have died because of the diversion of display fireworks in consumers' hands. So we're going to show you, really, the power and speed of a firework such as this in consumers' hands.

COSTELLO: Wow!

O'BRIEN: Ouch!

COSTELLO: OK, so we got that message as well. But, you know, despite your demonstrations, a lot of people will be using fireworks at home because they're legal in a lot of states. Let's face it. So give us some tips on how to keep safe.

VALLESE: They are legal in a lot of states. And that's really the first tip. Make sure that they are legal in your area. There are five states that actually don't allow fireworks of any kind. And even if they are legal in your state, make sure that they're legal in your city or county, because sometimes those codes are different as well.

You also -- as we've mentioned, don't let kids handle them. You also never want to light or try and relight a firework that's a dud or misfired. Sometimes if you relight it, you will have a problem with the explosion and it may actually go sideways and cause injuries. And really, lastly, make sure that you have a hose or a bucket of water on hand so that you will be able to put out any fires or any smoking fireworks. You know, they are fun. They are legal in a lot of areas. And the Consumer Products Safety Commission just wants everyone to have a safe and wonderful July Fourth.

COSTELLO: I just think I'll go to my little town fireworks show and not bother to setting off my own. Julie Vallese, thank you so much for showing us all that stuff. Julie Vallese with the...

VALLESE: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: ... U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission. Thanks for being with us.

O'BRIEN: Certainly would put a damper on the party there, most anything you saw there.

All right. Coming up in the program, we are "Minding Your Business" today with Ellen McGirt. We'll tell you why high interest rates may actually be good news.

COSTELLO: Really? Say what?

O'BRIEN: We'll walk down that logic, somehow.

COSTELLO: All right. And later, is the middle class getting squeezed out of the housing market? We're going to take a closer look. That's just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: This news just in to CNN. We don't know much about it, but it's a terrible train accident in Spain, near Madrid in Valencia. It was a subway derailment. It must have been very serious because there are reports that between 20 and 30 people have been killed. We're taking a look at where Valencia, Spain is. As I said, it's east of Madrid. When we get more details about this, of course, we'll pass it along to you. But from what we know right now, this is very serious. At least 30 people have been killed -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much. We'll be tracking that one very closely.

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

COSTELLO: In a moment, our top stories, including Osama bin Laden's new message calling for Sunnis to fight Shiites in Iraq.

Saddam Hussein's wife and daughter are named on Iraq's new most wanted list.

Palestinian militants holding an Israeli soldier give Israel until tomorrow morning to meet their demands.

Plus, how to make the best of a deflating housing market.

And a possible change in the shuttle mission. Weather is keeping the shuttle on the ground until tomorrow. NASA today to work on increasing the length of Discovery's time in space.

Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: A new taped message from Osama bin Laden. The al Qaeda leader again trying to stir the pot in Iraq.

Saddam Hussein's wife added to Iraq's most wanted list. His eldest daughter also on the list, But well behind the country's new public enemy number one.

COSTELLO: No negotiations. Israel now with an answer for militants who have set a deadline for serious consequences.

O'BRIEN: A release of another kind for rapper Lil' Kim. There she is, out of prison. A couple of months early. Good time, they say. We'll tell you why.

And, a big thumbs up for Roger Ebert after emergency surgery. An update on his condition, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com